Selfish Opinion Week [SOW]

Poast yours now! Hurry, before the special coupon expires! 😀

It’s interesting how many of us in this corner of Blogville have given opinions in the past few days about the nature of blogging itself, either how they’ll need to cut back a bit because of time constraints (me and a few others) and/or a general statement regarding what they like or dislike about reading blogs. I must apologize in being remiss for not stating some prefs. You know I haz them. 😈

On a side note, this makes me think about how many millions of blogs there are with loosely connected communities, united by various themes, and how they periodically must engage in these discussions also. If there’s life on other planets, maybe they have blogs too… something to ponder. Are they wondering about us, me in particular? I bet they might be…

Anyway, during these meta convos, it’s apparent to me how many bloggers not only don’t use the phone app (which must be available for laptops too), but also are reading poasts via email. I would literally die if all your poasts and notifications poured into my email, even a dedicated email. How could I possibly deal with that deluge? The very idea makes me dizzy.

Before I used the phone app, I read poasts via the WP reader and that was a million times better than emailed poasts (which I never got because eww). But now I’m app-only because of the “save” feature and the ease of reading/writing. I’ve set up a search list for my dozen or so favorite prompters since sometimes there are app gaps. I really recommend that bloggers at least try these newfangled ideas instead of deleting blogs from their followed list for “posting too much.” 🙄

Naturally, that’s only a rec, and everyone is free to ignore it. Now, onto some other preferences that peeps will ignore. Why the hell not? It’s Selfish Opinion Week and I am getting in on the action, so to speak. Er write. Not targeting anyone in particular, just people who do the things. 😂

1. Teaser blogs. You know who you are. You allow only a first line or snippet of your poast to appear in the reader, so we have to click through. Annoying as f*ck. Not only that, but there are a few who even after that require further clickage to another site to read the rest of the article. What site even? Welp, we won’t know until we get there. Omg HATE! It might be another blog or a Buzzfeed article or… whatever. No, I am not opposed to bloggers making money from their writing via ads, but do it in a way that doesn’t inconvenience ME. Cuz when I am reading your poast, at that point it is all about me, not you. (PS, I don’t click through. Will not. Unless it’s about kitties. Maybe. 🐱)

2. Photo mania. I like a couple pics in a poast. I usually put one, maybe two. I no longer do the photo prompts and I’m not talking about those ~ I’m talking about a regular essay, such as this one, but with PHOTOS randomly shoveled in throughout. Whyyy? They make the poast take forever to load and sometimes the app simply crashes. Only a few of you do this, so it’s not an enormous problem, but still. It’s SOW, and I’ve got a double coupon right here. Two for the price of one, neener!

That’s all. As you were.

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Finally!

Sorry to go on again about this, but I just didn’t understand why I never got notifs of happy things from WP. They used to send me notifs, and occasionally they will send a jagged blue arrow to tell me my “stats are booming,” but that’s all. So random. I’m still waiting for my 💯 days poasting in a row congrats.

Anyway. Yayyy! Great month! See ya on the flip side.

November Rain

Welp, we finally got some rain… so I’ve had a rain migraine for 3 days instead of a dry wind migraine. Lol, can’t win. But that did not stop me from finishing NaNo ~ yep, I made it all the way to 50,241 words, which have been verified. I had to copypasta all 41 of my poasts into their form so they could count the words.

Of course this is a giant mess, as you might imagine, with 41 poasts, not all in sync, some of the minor characters’ names mixed up, notes mashed in throughout about changing stuff, fixing dates and nicknames, consolidating locations, etc. Can’t wait to sort it out into my main doc. Plus I still have to write the rest of it! It’s not nearly finished at all. 🙄

But still… yayyy! I didn’t think I’d make it and I did.

Another yay ~ as of this morning I have 500 WordPress followers. Yippee! 🎉🎈🎶 WP doesn’t send me any congrats like they do other bloggers. I’ve never received that 💯 days in a row notice, forex. But look:

I might not be as good at math as I once was but I can still add 499 + 1. Thank you Papershots! What a great name for a great blog too! 😀

So, that ends the month for me on a high note. Onward to more writing! And happy Friday, everyone! 🐱🌧💕

Eleven, Fandango Style

Fandango received an award and told everyone to play along. So bossy!

1. If you had to choose to be on a reality show, which one would it be?

– I hatessss them, unless game shows count. If they do, then I might like to embarrass myself on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.

2. If you could change your name, what would it be?

– Fandango. 😂😂😂 Actually, I’ve been thinking about this cuz I kept my married name post-divorce so I could have the same name as my children, but now they’ve gone and changed theirs. I’m stuck with a name of peeps I never see. I don’t wanna change it back to the original cuz I don’t know any of my own peeps either. Maybe I’ll just pick a new name out of a hat. NOT THAT HAT! 😱😱😱

3. How long have you been blogging?

– I began this blog in March 2011, but it had many lulls. I’ve had other blogs, all inactive or offline now except for my private diary blog that I’m using for NaNoWriMo entries (almost at 50K!).

4. How frequently do you blog?

– Lately 1-3 poasts per day. I’m surprised I haven’t received one of those woohoo 🎉 notices yet about 💯 days in a row.

5. Share the link to a favorite post of yours, why is this your favorite?

– The Duke vs. the Secretary. This is a fun poast with many views and comments.

6. Do you check your stats for the countries that have ‘visited’ your blog?

– Rarely.

7. Which countries are you missing from your WordPress globe and would really like to see filled in on your map?

– Don’t know, don’t care. I’m just happy there are a few things I don’t obsess over, and this blog stat crap falls neatly into that category.

8. Are you a ‘crafty’ person? (knit, sew, paint, macrame … ?)

– I used to sew, knit, embroider, do needlepoint, crewel, etc. A long time ago I began a tee shirt painting biz, but it was too stressful on my wrist. Love beading (costly tho). Have over a dozen scrapbooks. But I find my old eyes get a bit tired and irritated for this type of work lately. I have many unfinished projects. 🙁

9. Assuming that you celebrate, do you shop in advance for Christmas or do you leave everything to the last minute?

– I don’t celebrate as such. I enjoy lighting candles for Chanukah and I exchange small gifts with my immediate family that are usually purchased pretty far in advance. That’s it. No “Jewish Christmas” here.

10. Do you participate in sports?

– Blech.

11. Are you a sweet or savory person?

– I eat sugar until I barf, and then I switch to pizza for one meal. Then back to sugar. This is how I maintain my slim figure and stellar health. I should write a book…

Page 7, Line 5

Via The Haunted Wordsmith.

All I have here is the Berkeley Law magazine, which just came in the mail. It will have to do in lieu of a book.

“It combined two things I really care about: ensuring copyright law doesn’t block otherwise legitimate fair uses, and preserving video games I grew up playing,”

It makes me happy to know that quoting this quote is within the realm of fair use, qua the quote itself, so the quotee is not going to be mad at me if he googles his quote one day to see if anyone is discussing its intellectual merits and finds it plopped on a cupcake, cats, and romance novel blarg. Actually it’s more of a cats, angry poetry, and weird flash blog these days, isn’t it? Hmm. How would you label this mess? I gave up as you can see from my relatively recently updated tagline. Am I allowed to use two ly-adjectives in a row? Can I haz ruling?

What the article is actually about, if anyone cares, is preserving deactivated video games. Bet you never thought about that. Well, other people have. That’s why they’re in law school and you’re not, pffft.

I wonder what happened to that old Ladybug game my mommy used to play. It was one of the first up. I’ll never forget the annoying chomp chomp chomp sound as the bugs nommed up all the things.

That’s all. 🐞🐞🐞

I Put the Lie in Liebster

Big thanks to Kristian for the award! Loved his answers. 😀

RULES

• Acknowledge the blogger that gave it to you and display the award
• Answer 11 questions that the blogger gave you
• Give 11 random thoughts about yourself
• Nominate 11 other bloggers and notify them of their nomination
• Ask your nominees 11 questions

The origins of this award are as follows:

“This award is meant to encourage new bloggers. From The Global Aussie: “The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011.  Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”  The award initially focused on bloggers with less than 2000 followers, but as its popularity increased this number has gone down to 200.”

My questions from Kristian:

1. If someone were to make a film/movie about your life, which actor would you like to play you? Joan Cusack. People have said we look alike, and maybe I’d get an intro to John.
2. If you had to stand up and sing a song at Karaoke what song would you choose? Already tried to sing Bang Bang with someone and goofed it all up.
3. If you received a plane ticket through the post that could take you absolutely anywhere in the world, where would you go? Back to NorCal to visit my family.
4. You are trapped in a mountain hut in a snowstorm. You have all the food and drink you need but there is no TV. What books would you like to have with you? All the romances I haven’t read. But nothing scary if I’m trapped!
5. If you could go back in time and meet someone from history who would it be? Whoops! Couldn’t decide and then forgot to answer. I’ll just put Emily Dickinson.
6. You arrive home after a long day and the magic elves have cooked/prepared your favourite meal, what is it? Sautéed mushrooms over wilted greens and lovely fresh seafood pasta.
7. Someone pulls out in front of you on the motorway, makes you slam your breaks on, then speeds off. What would you like to happen to them? Ticket for speeding and reckless driving. I know that sounds boring, but if people were actually penalized properly, things would get better on the roads and we wouldn’t have to hate each other and be so stressed.
8. What burning question that I didn’t ask would you like to answer? How many words am I up to in NaNoWriMo ~ 7674

Eight is the new 11, yayyy! Thanks Kristian for not going up to 11!

Eight random things about me then:

1. My ears are significantly asymmetrical.

2. I remember names much better than faces.

3. I don’t ask/care about/remember facts about people such as age, location, job because those things bore me, but I will remember something funny they said.

4. I have written two complete, legit romance novels (available for Kindle).

5. I have done stand-up comedy.

6. I won an award in high school for being awesome at Spanish.

7. I barely remember any Spanish now.

8. I still have some Beanie Babies.

If you have fewer than 500 WordPress followers, you have now been chosen by me as a Liebster Award Recipient ~ congrats! Please follow the rules above and take my 8 random facts (8 is the new 11) and questionize them (what about you is asymmetrical, do you remember names or faces, etc.).

Happy Liebstering!

PSA on VLOGS

It’s not you, it’s me. No really, it is. I’ve been invited to some of your VLOGS, and I’m sure they’re sublime, but I respectfully decline them all.

First, I’m running out of time to do all the bloggy things as it is and have to skip many great prompts already. I’ll be passing up even more in November because NaNo. Yikes, that’s coming right up!

Second, I’m simply not fond of videos, with the occasional cute animal exception. I am and always have been a huge fan of the written word. It’s how I learn best and how I express my thoughts best too. I simply have no desire to turn this enjoyable blogging experience into something resembling television. 😝

So, in case you’re wondering why you don’t see me at your VLOG, this is why.

Missing Seven Hours

This is what Fandango illustrated the other day. I’ve been missing big chunks of hours in my WordPress app during the night. Now that I’m used to the convenience saving poasts in a tab for later commenting and/or linkage, I am not at all inclined to return to reading in my browser. I’ll just live with it until they fix it. But I’m not happy and everyone should know this. 😢

Finally Recognized for Mah Awesomeness!

This time a big super duper thank you to Parallax! I didn’t get any awards on the book of face, but here in Blogland everyone is awesome, brilliant, and gorgeous! How do I know this even without seeing their photos or IQ scores? Because they like me, silly, and bestow upon me great honors. Yayyy!

Happy happy dance la la la… what? Oh, apparently I am required to do things for the award. Omg rules. 🙄🙄🙄

K, I thanked Parallax and gave a link. My award poast? You’re looking at it, kid. A brief story of how my blog started…

To cope with an unhealthy relationship, I started this blog in March of 2011. I’d had other blogs previously but went blogless for a while. I didn’t talk directly about my relationship of course, since he knew about the blog too, but I would poast song lyrics and excerpts from books I was reading that alluded to it. Later, after we broke up, I did write a bit about how I felt at certain points, though I’ve probably deleted most of that now. I began poasting whatever… stuff from the news, though not too much partisan politics, movie reviews, my ideas about writing, migraine awareness, whines regarding dating sites, etc. Since I used Facebook for my main source of social media interaction, I didn’t worry about increasing my blog readership or linking to other bloggers, etc. Once I deleted FB this year however, that changed. It would be pretty dull to blog sans feedback, so I made a point of doing prompts and interacting with my fellow bloggers, which of course makes the whole thing much more fun.

Okay, it’s not brief ~ sue me. My two pieces of advice for new bloggers are: do not feed trolls and write about yourself or things that interest you personally rather than trying to generate hits via a formula.

I tag everyone reading this, if you haven’t been recognized specifically already! 🌺

For the NGDGU File

It’s not an emergency but… just when I’ve gone out of my way to explicitly praise the WordPress app several times here and in comments to fellow bloggers, it’s quit working properly. I can still poast just fine, which is the most important thing, since peeps would surely have the big sads without their fix of meeee, but my reader is all screwed up.

Here’s the haps. I open it up and get a few dozen new poasts, like from the past hour. All good. Then it leaps to poasts from 12 hours ago with nothing in between! If I close out and return, I may get a few randoms from the missing hours, out of order, but… ughhh. Yesterday I didn’t get the prompt poasts, but luckily someone had a story with them all in it, so I saved that. Today I can only find the one I used in my first line. I’m missing Scott’s and Fandango’s and Sheryl’s and others.

DO NOT LIKE. Bad app is bad.